Bloomberg New Energy Finance report describes the ongoing evolution of US solar financing: where the market is today, where it is heading, and what’s behind this important transition.
New models are emerging. Distributed generation is driving innovation and creating new models for solar deployment. Few homeowners can afford the upfront cost of a solar system, giving rise to third-party financing models, which allow them to ‘go solar’ with little or no money down. These models also give investors a diversified opportunity to back solar.
New investors are taking interest. Institutional players such as insurance companies and pension funds seek stable, long-lived assets to match long-term liabilities; some utilities may seek solar portfolios to offset revenue loss from distributed generation. On the development side, infrastructure funds could achieve targeted returns by bringing these projects to fruition.